DnD 4 edition

[VolcanosD]

i am wondering what people think about this new version?

let me know what you think.

[Masterjack]

Well my son thinks it's great. I do not want to spend the time learning a new system and buying more books.  The problem is not much has come out for it yet. My son has preordered most of the books and all he has so far is an adventure with some premade characters. The adventure gives some basic rules to give you a head start on how the new system plays. Once I get more details (from my son) I'll give you a better over view.

[Falonthas]

from someone who has played since the booklet and box stages

its for simpletons and for wotc to make more money without making great leaps in the game
 as if d20 wasnt enough to make it simple

[miltonyorkcastle]

I'll be giving it a shot this summer, likely, so I'll weigh in as some point.

[lonnarin]

I haven't touched it yet, so I'll reserve judgement until then.  But lets just say I'm probably not going to buy it until I've finished my Punisher: Maxx and 2004 Conan trade-paperback collections.

[Faldred]

The new SRD is due to be released tomorrow.  From the preview materials so far, color me unimpressed.  It looks like a nice, streamlined, tabletop tactical board game, but by naming it "Dungeons & Dragons" they invite comparison to previous versions.

So, comparing it to D&D 3.5, it looks like all characters are basically now Complete Arcane style Warlocks or Tome of Battle style martial adepts, but with fewer character options.  Balanced, streamlined, but ultimately lacking in flexibility.

That said, I'll be reviewing the SRD quite thoroughly from a semi-professional interest due to my work with fledgling publishing studio Victorious Press.

[VolcanosD]

after making some characters and studying it - like anything - there are good points and things that are frustrating.

i will slowly post my points as i formulate them but the two aspects of 4 that i would like to address is Multi-class and multi-attack.

1. multi-class. i like it. i like mixing it up to create the character that i in vision or being able to change things as the character grows. 4 has the weakest notion of multi-classing. it permits a player to take a feat that is a pre-reg for other feats in other classes. that's not multi-classing.

so the class types are interesting and very customized - almost too much. but i still like mixing things up. because in real life - i don't know anyone that fits any one architype.

2. multi attack. there is none? did any one see a list or progression that demonstrates multi-attack. as a student, practitioner and viewer of martial arts - i know for a fact that people can hit hard and fast. just look at bruce lee or chackie chan- some of the fastest fists in the world (based on what i have seen). i know people can hit multiple times in seconds. if memory is correct, i know a person to strike at least 12 times within a second. thats alot. its not all power - but it distracts and stings.

so i would like to know where the multi-attacking went in 4.

oh - i do think its an attempt to make more money, to compete with video games and to get people connected - online - to there stuff.

i agree that tech advances - but dnd is a fantasy game and a live interactive game. i like my imagination with out computer simulators.

[Gulnyr]

First, understand  haven't really checked it out yet, so I don't have a real opinion yet, but I do have an opinion on the "all for money" angle.

That opinion can be summed up as "duh."  Here's a longer version:

Honestly, make money is what companies do.  If they don't, no one gets paid and the business goes belly up.  Should Blizzard have stopped with WarCraft: Orcs and Humans and then sat back satisfied, maybe putting out some mission packs now and then?  No WarCraft II.  No WoW.  That doesn't sound like a great plan to me, and I don't think it would work very well for tabletop gaming companies, either.

The cool thing is Wizards is trying something different.  Maybe it's awesome and spreads the hobby with accessibility (or simplicity or whatever you want to call it), and spreading the hobby is a great thing, or maybe it flops and they have to go back to something more 3.x-ish for D&D5.  Either way, if you don't want to buy in, your old stuff never stops working.  You can play 3.5, or 3.0, or AD&D, or the Basic Set in the red box (which was pretty simple, but I loved it back in the day), or whatever you like forever and ever.  You are not required to "upgrade" to enjoy the hobby.

So, the company is trying to make money.  Yes it is.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

What I've always loved about D&D (and other pen-and-paper games) is that it never stops working. While in Warhammer, your army may be so outdated that it's not tournament-legal anymore, or the Diablo II servers are so antiquated that they're shut down...

You can always roll a d20.